Why Do Bearded Dragons Change Color?

To better understand what we’re seeing, there are some things to know:

🦎BEARDED DRAGONS ARE NATIVE TO AUSTRALIA, AND THERE ARE EIGHT DIFFERENT SPECIES.

They are Pogona barbata, Pogona henrylawsoni, Pogona microlepidota, Pogona minor, Pogona mitchelli, Pagona minor minima, Pogona nullarbor, and Pogona vitticeps.

These are found in deserts, woodlands, heathland, tropical savannahs, and coastal dunes… Australia is vast and beautiful, folks!!

Pogona vitticeps, known as the Central Bearded Dragon, and also found in Eastern regions of Australia, is the most common “Beardie” kept as pets (I prefer the term: Animal companions).

I have seen these beautiful species, and I can’t distinguish one species from another, and I believe this is due in part to their morphs. I am no saurologist (a subfield of herpetology), I’m just content in seeing the beauty of each individual.

🦎THERE ARE WAYS TO KNOW THE SPECIES YOU’RE SEEING BY NOTING THEIR PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS, of course, such as the Central Beardie having a straight row of spines on the back of its head (as Lil’ Murph does), and the Eastern Beardie possesses nearly a semicircular curve of spines on the back of its head. I don’t know all of the defining characteristics, but there are a couple of examples.

🦎SO, WHAT IS A MORPH? Basically, a morph is genetic color variations and patterns, either by way of evolution, or their natural genetic polymorphism (like natural camouflage, for example), or selective breeding where people cross-breed parents to create a desired morph in the off-spring. However, some morphs have a physical aspect along with the expected colors of that morph. One example of this is a morph known as the “Silkback.” They are Bearded Dragons that entirely lack classic Beardie spikes! They are also known as “Silkies,” and I read they are a more difficult morph to care for.

*And this is just another reason I do not like people breeding animals (or themselves in many cases and overpopulating the planet – did I just type that and choose to leave it?) There is no love, living beings are seen as income. When a species is nearing extinction, I am all for breeding. However, there are far too many homeless animals of all kinds as it is. We need to appreciate the ones already here. We see breathing issues and more in dogs whose breed exists because of selective breeding. As with the Silkbacks mentioned above, the more difficult an animal is to care for, the more likely a person isn’t going to love it enough to do what it takes to care for it, or be able to afford the care, the UVA and UVB bulbs, vet visits, etc. Guess what then? We have another suffering and/or homeless, helpless animal of the scaly angel variety.

🦎THERE ARE AT LEAST 11 DIFFERENT BEARDED DRAGON MORPHS

• Classic/Standard
• Leatherback
• Silkback
• German Giant
• Paradox
• Translucent
• Wero
• Witblits
• Zero
• Dunner
• Hypomelanistic

This site shows 22 distinctions within morphs: https://reptile.guide/bearded-dragon-morphs/ (*Featured image also obtained from this site)

… and it gets complicated… Beardies can have traits and not show them, genes can be recessive, the Paradox morph lizard hatches from it’s tiny egg looking rather classic and changes as it ages! Brain spinner HERE.

This is Copper, our beloved before our beloved Lil’ Murph, notice her whitish-blue eyes (that occasionally had a copper-type sheen) and the yellow and orange in her scales:

Notice how different Murph is! His eyes are… I don’t really know… brown-ish, copper-ish, gold-ish… and once in a while when the lighting is just so, they look more red than anything! These beings are both so amazingly beautiful to me, and with such different, amazing personalities:

Look at the yellow at Lil’ Murph’s lips and ear above. Knowing him so closely, I have seen colors becoming more prominent or appearing all of a sudden as he ages. His shoulder spikes are whiter, he has yellows, oranges, and a subtle, almost melon/salmon color, especially in sunlight, that has surfaced (more so on his chin/beard). Lizards may get a tiny red freckle or two. Murph and Copper both have had that. Murph has some individual spikes that change color three times from the beginning to the tip! I think some morph traits may sort of wake up as time happens. Maybe.

Someone commented on our previous post with a question about Murph’s color variations. This is the reply we want to share as these are other things to know about our cool lizard friends:

Bearded dragons express their thoughts through body language, and emotions, pain, and stress are seen through their color variations. For example, Murph’s morph (although appearing to be a classic and not a  genetically altered morph, doesn’t discount the possibility of a different morph never having been introduced into his lineage at some point in his ancestry) consists largely of brown shades, with other colors sprinkled in. His underside is nearly white. When excited in any way, beardies form little dark circles on their bellies, varying in intensity. Their chins turn black for a few reasons, including mating season. Other reasons that are not good are anger, stress, pain, or dying. They also will widen their bodies and darken their top sides to absorb more of the sun’s life-saving rays, as they must have it to metabolize their food.

Interesting reads:

“The Bearded Dragon Manual,” is very informative. You can pick one up for under $5 USD HERE.

•https://www.reptileforums.co.uk/threads/beardie-hets-and-hypos-and-other-morphs-can-anyone-explain-it-to-me.1019231/

•https://www.thesprucepets.com/bearded-dragon-morphs-4173672

•https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/bearded-dragons

Here’s a Reddit segment pertaining to someone who posted a photo of their Silkback Bearded Dragon and the concern for its well-being. Please scroll just a second to read [deleted]’s response that highlights the sad state these beauties endure because people want something unnatural RIGHT HERE.

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and visit our store and follow us there, where we have our Meta•MURPH•osis collection dedicated to our one and only Lil’ Murph, and to honor lizards everywhere (& so much more): The Dizzy Butterfly store link: https://www.zazzle.com/store/thedizzybutterfly

Thank you for visiting, reading, and anything else you do!😉

“Give me Lizardry or give me Death!” – ❤️Murph & Dawn